Zen Ghosts, by Jon J. Muth
Unlike the book we featured yesterday, Jon J. Muth's Zen Ghosts is an example of kid-friendly surrealism done absolutely right. It's short on words, but overflows with thought-prov...
Dry your tears, Buffy fans.
I've only been keeping half an eye out for news about the proposed Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, but I did see an article on the MTV Movies Blog that (gently) chided series creator Joss Whedon—...
The Memory Bank, by Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson
The Memory Bank (text by Carolyn Coman, illustrations by Rob Shepperson) is the story of two sisters. When Hope's evil parents banish her baby sister Honey for breaking the family'...
Major (by our standards, anyway) announcement:
Well, dear readers, after nearly six years of our current layout, Wordcandy.net is finally getting a full site redesign, and we're building up for the changeover by having a month-long book giveaw...
Wordcandy's Holiday Gift List: 2010 Edition
It's that time of year again, dear readers—time for our annual list of Wordcandy-friendly gift suggestions! Behold ten of our favorite book-related goods ranging in price from $10 to $100:1.Jonat...
One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead
Do not give Rebecca Mead's 2007 book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding to anyone who has recently had a wedding*. Trust me, it will only depress them, and who wants to embark o...
Happily Ever After, by Nora Roberts
Earlier this month, Nora Roberts released Happy Ever After, the final novel in her Bride Quartet. I've grown fonder of this series with each book, so I trotted out to my local bookstore—this ti...
One-stop holiday shopping
Well, this should make Megan happy (she loves these editions): for a limited time, Powell's Books is selling Penguin's "Hardcover Classics" line—designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and featuring "g...
Check your fairy godmothers at the door
Salon's Laura Miller has posted an article about the National Book Award's stipulation barring "collections and/or retellings of folk-tales, myths, and fairy-tales" from entering the contest. I h...
Cookbooks lie.
Jesse Wegman has posted an article on Slate.com about the inaccuracy of cooking times advertised in cookbooks. The author explores a variety of theories, including three possibilities suggested b...
"You better watch yourself." Seriously, film?
Behold, the dark-and-sexy new film take on Little Red Riding Hood:Okay... that looks hilarious, and unintentionally so. I am so there.P.S. Is it just me, or did they steal most of their costumin...
Save the words!
The fine people at Oxford English Dictionaries have started SaveTheWords.org, a website devoted to reviving thousands of gloriously obscure English words that have fallen out of daily use. Visito...
Michael Buckley for an older crowd
I caught an episode of Robotomy over the weekend, and while this series was co-created by best-selling children's author Michael Buckley and appears on Cartoon Network, do not assume it is safe fo...
Jumping the gun?
Deadline is reporting that Fox 2000 has bought the rights to a projected YA trilogy written by Julianna Baggott. The series doesn't actually have a publisher yet, much less a release date or cove...
Weak. Sauce.
Oh, for crying out loud:They're doing zombie/children's poem crossovers now? And they're charging nearly $13 for them? Seriously, the minute I see someone trying to splice a monster joke into a ...
Smelling like Charles Dickens
Artisan candlemaker Paddywax has released a line of author-inspired candles. At $25 per 9oz. glass container, you can now scent your home with candles named after Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen, He...
It's still not April 1st, right?
Huh. NPR informs me that the 4th Annual Quidditch World Cup is taking place at De Witt Clinton Park in New York City this very weekend, and will feature more than 60 different teams from high sch...
And look! She's *not* shaped like Barbie!
Jezebel has posted a couple of advance images from the upcoming Marvel Comics reboot of the "Spider-Girl" character. (This version of the character has no connection to Peter Parker, apparently.)...
Not bad, not bad at all.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips is apparently planning on giving away several advance-reader copies of her upcoming book Call Me Irresistible over the next few months, so if you're a fan of hers you migh...
The curse of the delicate flower
If you're a braver person than I am, check out the recent Twilight spoof that aired as part of the Simpsons' annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode. I was too embarrassed to watch more than a minut...
One-stop shopping
If you're interested in checking out any of this year's finalists for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Horn Book people and the School Library Journal folks have both put...
Fellow Pacific Northwesteners take note:
Mockingjay author Suzanne Collins will be visiting Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon on Sunday, November 7th from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. Due to a hand injury, Ms. Collins will be stamping books rath...
Cookbook porn
The Atlantic has posted a lengthy review (complete with two recipe links) of The Gourmet Cookie Book, the latest and last title from the now-defunct Gourmet magazine. The review is good, but get ...
Goin' to the movies
Time for another film adaptation news round-up!According to the MTV Movies Blog, Johnny Depp might be playing the Huntsman in the movie Snow White and The Huntsman. The Hollywood Reporter is offer...
Zora Neale Hurston goes Nancy Drew
The Times has posted an article about Zora and Me, a new kids' novel featuring a fictionalized version of Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston as a girl detective. Written by Victoria Bon...
Clutch the pearls!
And speaking of Jane Austen's work, AustenBlog has put together a helpful collection of links about the recent kerfluffle over Austen scholar Kathryn Sutherland, who has made the shocking allegati...
So confused
Well, here's the trailer for From Prada to Nada, the latest film version based (obviously very loosely) on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility:Huh. Is Wilmer Valderrama playing the Colonel Brando...
Creepy real estate doesn't bring in the cash that it used to, apparently.
The house that inspired Jay Anson's "nonfiction" book The Amityville Horror: A True Story has once again been sold, this time for $200,000 less than its asking price of 1.15 million dollars. I'm ...
The future of publishing?
NPR has an article up on their "All Tech Considered" site about sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow's very 21st-century take on self-publishing. Doctorow's latest book, a collection of short stories call...
Good call, guys.
Hey, all right: according to the Associated Press, the Virginia elementary school textbook we wrote about last week that featured the inaccurate claim that thousands of black troops fought for the...